


The Road less Traveled

by dancewaterdance



Series: Team Daybreak [1]
Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Amnesia, Canon-Typical Violence, Demyx & Larxene siblings theory, Minor Swearing, but no graphic depictions of the wound, but there is a kh style death in here, cannon typical character death, group amnesia, minor blood in chapter 2, not tagging this as major character death, postkh3
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-25
Updated: 2019-05-25
Packaged: 2020-03-17 10:39:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18963586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dancewaterdance/pseuds/dancewaterdance
Summary: Demyx, Lodur, Lauriam, and Elrena find themselves teaming up to do the most important thing, make munny! But also to find Daybreak town and their lost memories that's important too. Unfortunately teamwork is their weakest skill and splitting the party their favorite plan. What could go wrong?





	The Road less Traveled

**Author's Note:**

> Chapter 1 is 3000 words. Don't know how long the others will be since I haven't written them yet. But I do have at least the next 3 chapters planned out. More characters will show up but I'm not tagging them yet cause that's spoilers. Also I'm going to try to avoid ships in this fic, but if you want to read some of these interactions as romantic go for it! Except for Demyx and Elrena! Don't be gross! Go read another fic that isn't writing them as siblings for that.
> 
> Yes I'm writing "the Demyx and Elrena are siblings but don't remember" theory into this fic. I made the theory post on tumblr so I might as well write it in one of my fics. It won't be mentioned or revealed for quite a few chapters. But if Elrena seems a little OOC that's why. Tried to keep it to a minimum and only at the end, but it does happen a little.
> 
>  
> 
> Anyway enjoy the chapter!

Demyx, Lodur, Lauriam, and Elrena stand in a small clearing. A swarm of heartless shoots out of the inky black cave in front of them. Weapons in hand they begin to attack the nest of heartless. The nest had been terrorizing the small town nearby and a rich merchant had hired them to take care of it.

 

They weren’t heroes they didn’t help the locals unless there was promise of a reward. This time a large sum had been promised. The munny would help them buy food and fuel for their gummiship. Such jobs were unfortunately necessary to allow them to continue their main mission, finding the missing Daybreak town and figuring out what it had to do with their missing memories.

 

“Look sharp everyone. I’d like to clear this out and get off world before night fall.” Lauriam trying to give orders was still annoying. They had all agreed not to name a leader in the beginning and yet Lauriam seemed to be stepping into the position anyway.

 

Elrena scoffs as she throws some of her knives at the heartless. “We’d all like to get off this dump before nightfall, you’re not special.”

 

Lodur chuckles throwing up some cards to keep the heartless corralled in one area. “You never know the nightlife here might be a lively bunch.”

 

“Dude I saw like one pub, maybe. You’re reaching this time.” Lodur liked to find any excuse to ‘celebrate’ after a mission. From time to time Demyx would side with him, but not today. Today they are on a world dealing with the hottest part of summer. Demyx is already sweating through his Tee and just wants to finish so he can go shower as soon as possible. Demyx strums a cord on his sitar soaking the heartless Lodur had cornered.

 

“I’m not staying on this dusty mud ball one second longer than it takes to get our munny. Do you even know what this sort of heat does to hair?” Elrena casts thundara it hits one of her knives embedded in the heartless and ricochets to the next knife. The soaked trapped heartless explode clearing a large percentage of their numbers. Lauriam shoots forward slashing his scythe through a few Large Bodies that survived the attack.

 

“Your hair gets frizzy and stands up? Oh, wait it already does that.” Demyx barely has to focus to dodge the knife Elrena launches at his head. The two hadn't changed in the last few months. Sure, they manage to live on the same ship without killing each other but it was only just barely.

 

“Please try to keep the squabbling off the battlefield.” The cluster they had taken out quickly refills with new heartless. Lodur struggles to keep them contained without the assistance of the other two.

 

“Lodur’s right, you guys need to focus. Or are you planning leave most of the kills to me?” Lauriam knew the easiest way to get the two to focus their frustration on the enemy was to make it a challenge. Lauriam wasn’t too stubborn to admit the friendly competition was also fun. Especially when he usually won.

 

“No fair I wasn’t counting!”

 

“Pfft, like you can count.”

 

Lauriam sighs, maybe it wouldn’t be that simple.

 

“How about a wager? Winner gets first shower when we return to ship.” For once Lauriam’s glad Lodur’s first ideas are always bets.

 

“What?! But Demyx would steal all the hot water!”

 

“Aw, you think I’ll win. That’s so nice of you!”

 

“That’s not what I meant, dumbass!”

 

“Guys!” The bickering is cut off by two things, Lauriam’s yell and the wave of heartless finally bursting through Lodur’s barrier and charging towards the trio.

 

Demyx and Elrena’s focus fully switches back to the heartless as the simple mission starts to become much more dangerous. As the last full Nobody Demyx has the largest magic reserve. He quickly uses the extra MP to summon multiple water clones among the heartless and to summon a large wave that pushes back the front line giving them more room to breathe.

 

“Lauriam!” Elrena yells out into the swarm unable to see her friend. The had lost sight of him in the chaos. She growls using her knives to slash through any heartless that get to close to her.

 

Lodur notices her pulling away from them and calls out. “Elrena wait! It would be unwise to split up at this juncture! We can only handle these numbers as a team.”

 

“I’m the fastest one here! I’ll find him and be back in no time! We’d get this done faster if we were all in one place, right?” Elrena was trying to twist Lodur’s words against him.

 

“Elrena you might not even be able to reach him with this many heartless between you and him!” Elrena takes a pause in fighting a soldier heartless to glare at Demyx. Implying she wasn’t strong enough was the wrong move. Now she was going to do it just to prove him wrong.

 

Elrena charges her lightning around her using it to launch herself across the battlefield. There’s a loud crack as she leaves a black scorch mark and a few obliterated heartless in her wake.

 

Lodur sighs as Demyx mutters a quite curse. “I didn’t word that right, did I?”

 

“No, it would appear you didn’t.”

 

Their focus switches back to the heartless still trying to surround them. The two tended to be more defensive and rely on their magic when fighting heartless. Stabbing heartless with cards and a sitar would only do so much.

 

“We must refocus our efforts to meet up with the other two.” It would require them to move through the swarm. But it was the only strategy Lodur could see getting them all out alive.

 

“Assuming we find the other two together.” Demyx mutters to himself. Having no ideas of his own, Demyx refrains from verbally complaining about the idea.

 

“I believe the best way to do this is for you to summon a water cyclone around us. It won’t kill them but it will keep them at a distance as we move.”

 

Demyx nods and the water clones he had summoned dissolve. The large amount of water starts to circle around them. It picks up speed as it grows in height.

 

“That’s as big as it’s going to get!” Demyx yells over the sound of rushing water. He can’t hear his sitar over the noise, he must assume he’s playing the right notes to keep the water from crashing down on them.

 

Lodur nods at Demyx’s declaration and slowly starts moving forward. The wall of water makes it impossible to see which direction they’re moving in. It’ll be pure luck if they find Lauriam and Elrena like this. Luckily Lodur still has luck in spades. Demyx trusts him to lead them towards their friends, just as much as Lodur trusts him to not drop thousands of gallons of water on them.

 

It’s slow going but they seem to make it across the battlefield. _Much farther and we’ll hit trees_ , Demyx thinks. No sign of their friends shows up. As Demyx predicted, the front edge of the cyclone starts to hit something solid and unmoving. Demyx stands still the cyclone stopping with him.

 

Lodur turns confused as to why they stopped moving. “We’re hitting the trees! They’ll break up the rotation if we go forward!” Lodur nods as Demyx yells his explanation over the water.

 

Demyx realizes they’re going to have to walk back across the battlefield again. The thought makes him realize just how much magic he has used keeping the cyclone going this long.

 

“I don’t think I can keep it going for another trip, Lodur! We’d end up stranded in the middle!”

 

“You said we’re near the tree line? We can use that to protect our flank! That way we can at least keep all the heartless in front of us!” Lodur turns to face the way they had come. He summons multiple cards to his hands. “On the count of three launch all the water the way we came!”

 

Demyx nods and moves to stand beside Lodur facing the same direction. They count together. “1, 2, 3!” Demyx releases the cyclone. The circular momentum launches the water forward like a sling shot. The force is so strong it obliterates the first few heartless it hits and greatly weakens the ones farther back.

 

“Glorious shot mate!” Lodur congratulates as he launches some cards through a few stragglers. The attack didn’t wipe out all the heartless in the area. But it certainly bought them some time to take out the one’s still around before more moved in.

 

Demyx grins and catches his breath from using such big magic. But after a few moments he shakes himself off and starts strumming his Sitar again. The water dispersed across the field starts to form geysers under the heartless. At random, heartless are launched into the air.

 

They fight like this for some time before Lodur notices something in the waves of heartless. “I have my sights on Lauriam, on our starboard side.”

 

Demyx scans around before he locks eyes on the pink hair Lodur saw. “Dude just say, right!”

 

Unfortunately, this causes enough of a distraction for the heartless to get too close again. A Rapid Thruster heartless tries to dive bomb Demyx. “Oh shit!” Demyx dodges just barely keeping its’ blade from slicing through Arpeggio’s strings.

 

“Watch yourself mate! It would do you no good to get diced before reinforcements arrive.” Demyx rolls his eyes as Lodur states the obvious.

 

Seeing Lauriam and Elrena gives Demyx an idea as a large Metal Troll heartless marches through the enemy ranks. “Elrena!” Demyx yells to her while pointing to the armored heartless. “Get ready to hit that with your biggest Thundaga!” Elrena sees it and puts together Demyx’s plan. She throws up a middle finger to confirm she heard him.

 

Demyx ignores the gesture and focuses on spreading more of his water over the battlefield. Once everywhere but where they are standing has an inch of water Demyx shifts his focus to the axe wielding heartless as it switches to its armored form and starts charging. He summons the last of the water in his reserves and forms it into a large ball. He strikes one final loud chord and launches the ball with all his strength towards the heartless. The ball slams into the heartless causing it to stumble out of its armored form. It quickly shakes it off as no real damage was done to it.

 

Elrena takes this to be the signal and calls forth the largest lightning bolt she can. It directly strikes the Metal Troll like a lightning rod. As the heartless dissolves into darkness the lightning travels through the water and hits every heartless on the ground. The following thunderclap is so loud it deafens the group for a moment. They stand, watching as most of the heartless dissolve into darkness.

 

Lauriam sends his scythe spinning through the last few Rapid Thrusters flying around. Everyone breathes a sigh of relief as the last heartless is destroyed.

 

Demyx unsummons his sitar and lets out a tired chuckle. “Does that *gasp* mean *gasp* we tie?” Demyx grins as he watches Elrena’s eyes widen with realization. That one combo had without a doubt taken out the most heartless and it was because she teamed up with _Demyx_.

 

“Ugh! Well don’t expect it to happen again! Technically all you did was dump a bucket on its head!”

 

Lauriam sighs. “Elrena enough. Let’s return to town, get some elixirs and return to-“ A scream breaks through the clearing.

 

Lodur is the closest and even he doesn’t notice the movement in the woods behind them before it’s too late. The heartless had been invisible hidden among the brush. Demyx doesn’t hear anything. The first thing he notices is the eruption of pain as large serrated teeth dig into his right shoulder and yank his whole body backwards. It’s not until later that he puts together that the scream that interrupted Lauriam was his.

 

“Demyx!” Lodur is the first to announce the danger. But Elrena is the first one to launch a weapon at the heartless. Her knife embeds itself in the heartless causing it to flinch and reveal itself. A Stealth Sneak holds Demyx firmly between its jaws. Lauriam launches himself at the heartless, scythe in hand. The heartless focuses on reaching the cover of the woods when Lauriam’s attack nearly slices one of its’ arms clean off.

 

The pain causes the heartless to drop Demyx. He hits the ground with a thud and doesn’t move to get out of the way of the heartless. Lodur notices this and moves in to pull Demyx away himself. Elrena screams launching herself at the heartless while charged with lightning, there’s a strange fire in her eyes.

 

The furious Chameleon’s jaws snap at Lauriam and Elrena. The two are fast enough to dodge the its jaws and horn and keep the heartless’ attention away from the two slowly moving away at its feet.

 

“Come on Demyx you need to stay awake. Don’t pass out on me alright?” The only response Lodur gets is a groan when Demyx’s bad shoulder knocks against the ground. Lodur moves to get a better hold on Demyx’s torso. “Demyx I need you to talk to me. Prove that you’re still awake. What number were you?” It’s the first question that comes to mind and should be easy enough for the other to answer, even while out of it.

 

Demyx is quiet for a while. Lodur starts to wonder if he really did pass out. “N-nine.”

 

Lodur is relieved when he looks back at Demyx’s face and sees glassy but open teal eyes. “That’s right, good. What’s my number?” Lodur keeps moving them as he talks.

 

Another pause and then. “T-ten.”

 

Before Lodur can answer there’s a crash as the Sneak’s tail uncurls and slams down way to close to them. Lodur makes a note to yell at Lauriam and Elrena for not keeping an eye out for the wounded during a battle.

 

“Whatsssss hap’?” Demyx manages to slur out.

 

“Heartless attack.” Demyx nods seeming to understand this answer.

 

“Go ‘elp.”

 

“Not when you’re wounded like this. Kid you’re smoking.” Lodur realizes Demyx may have been worse off after the first fight than he had originally let on. “Kid how much magic did you _use_?”

 

Demyx tries to shrug but his busted shoulder stops any attempt and he lets out a whimper instead. Lodur’s right though, his wound is releasing a worrying black smoke. But Demyx ignores it and turns his head to try and see what’s happening with the fight. Lauriam and Elrena are working on it but they still have a long way to go before destroying the heartless. None of their attacks had matched Lauriam’s first strike with strength or damage.

 

“They won’ make it, ya gotta ‘elp ‘em.” Lodur finally looks up and sees what Demyx is talking about. He can’t help but agree that the two were struggling. Elrena was clearly out of lightning spells and Lauriam’s scythe was staying firmly in his hands.

 

Lauriam fails to avoid the Chameleon’s tail and is slammed into a tree. He’s not down for the count, but he was certainly stunned for the moment. The heartless can now turn its full attention on Elrena. She’s fast enough to dodge its strikes. But that doesn’t leave her enough time to do return strikes. This wasn’t going to end unless someone stepped in.

 

“Please, help her.” Lodur turns back to Demyx and is surprised to see just how much _concern_ is in those glassy eyes. It was a rare sight to see Demyx concerned about the others and for Elrena even more so.

 

Lodur sighs. “I’m only going over there to get a potion from Lauriam.” Is all he says as he stands. They both know he’s also going over there to help.

 

Demyx lets out a relieved and tired sigh. “Thanks Lodur. I owe you one.”

 

“Well then I’ll be sure to put it on your tab.” Lodur flashes Demyx a smile before turning and joining their friends.

 

Demyx slumps down in the damp grass. He watches as Lodur throws up a card to shield Elrena giving her an opening to throw more knives. Lauriam finally rejoins them adding to their attacks. The heartless cries out in pain, they were making headway again.

 

Even with three of them it’s still a tough fight. Claws, teeth, horn, and tail all lash out trying to grab at least one of them. Elrena dodges the tail only to get kicked by its hind leg.

 

She glares at it. “Lauriam how long is it going to take for you to cut its head off?”

 

“Little hard to get that close when it’s moving this fast, Elrena. It’s also impossible to come at this thing from a blind spot.”

 

“I’ll give you an opening on the count of three!” Yells Lodur, he pulls out the last time spell he has. “You only get one shot.”

 

“Just throw it already so we can go home!”

 

Lauriam ignores Elrena and focuses on getting into position. He watches Lodur send the card with the spell on it spinning. Ignoring the laws of aerodynamics the card hits the heartless perfectly. The Chameleon instantly freezes in place.

 

Lauriam rushes forward scythe ready. Lodur’s time stops only lasted for 10 to 5 seconds depending on how much magic he uses. Something tells Lauriam he’s only got 5.

 

1 second He reaches the heartless’ side.

 

2 seconds He uses his momentum and a little bit of wind magic to push himself high in the air.

 

3 seconds He pulls back his arm, angling his scythe towards its neck.

 

4 seconds Gravity reclaims his body and he starts picking up speed as he falls towards his target.

 

5 seconds He falls through a cloud of smoke and lands on the ground breathing heavily.

 

Lauriam’s stunned staring at his scythe as he feels someone come over and pat him on the shoulder.

 

Lodur speaks for him. “Well done Lauriam. Took it out with one strike. It seemed to take the last of your magic thou-”

 

“It didn’t connect.” Lauriam finally speaks and Lodur tenses beside him.

 

“What?” _Had it turned invisible and escaped?_

 

Lauriam looks up to meet Lodur’s eyes. “I was falling through smoke before my scythe touched it.” _So it had been destroyed._

 

“If you didn’t. . . Then who?” They both come to the realization together. Just as for the second time that day someone yelled Demyx’s name.

 

Elrena had been closer to the frozen heartless than Lodur. When the heartless dissolved she felt it, a sprinkle of water. It had been hit from below before Lauriam even reached it. She runs past Lauriam as Lodur congratulates him. Her eyes on the figure still sprawled on the ground and the large amount of smoke now rising from it.

 

“Demyx!” Her cry barely gets a reaction out of him as she drops near him. She’s relieved when his glassy eyes manage to focus on her. But she almost wants to roll her eyes when it causes a shadow of his smug grin to appear on his face.

 

“Guess I get the first shower.”

 

Elrena lets out a huff. “You can’t get first shower if you’re dead, Dumbnut.”

 

Demyx just continues smiling. He doesn’t remember Larxene ever using that one, but the nickname sounded normal slipping off Elrena’s tongue. Lodur and Lauriam arrive beside them. No one moves to grab a potion. It’s too late now.

 

Elrena pats his jacket pocket confirming his “borrowed” gummiphone was still there. “When you wake up, call us. We’ll come get you.”

 

Demyx finally stops smiling and nods. Their clothes and what they had on them carried over when they reformed. But no one really tested what the process of dissolving and then reforming does to technology. Guess he was about to find out.

 

“See you later.” More pieces of smoke and darkness break off of him. He’s dying again, but he isn’t upset this time. He’s calm.

 

Elrena doesn’t hold back rolling her eyes this time. “Of course you will. I can’t seem to get rid of you, Demyx.”

 

Those are the last words Demyx hears as his world fades to black. _I didn’t get to tell her. It’s Edym._

**Author's Note:**

> Glad you made it through, thanks for reading! Sorry to leave it on a cliffhanger but I felt like it was the best place to stop. I'll get working on chapter 2 right away. I also have ideas for earlier plot stuff. Like how they all met up together, how they got a gummiship, what their first mission was like. Let me know if you'd like to read some one-shots about that. I made this a series so I can toss those in if anyone wants them.
> 
>  
> 
> Let me know how you liked it and if you noticed all the bad omen lines I gave Lodur. There's like at least 3. Hope to be back with the next chapter soon!


End file.
